


The Amazing Spider-Dad

by Lumelle



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Coming Out, Drabble Sequence, FTM Peter Parker, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 15:52:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14855697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumelle/pseuds/Lumelle
Summary: Honestly, it was probably inevitable that Tony ended up with an unplanned child sooner or later. Turns out his kid is pretty great, though, once Tony gets used to the idea.





	The Amazing Spider-Dad

Honestly, it was a wonder this hadn’t happened before.

Tony liked to think he was careful about his affairs, but with the amount of sex and alcohol he went through on a regular basis, it had always been only a matter of time until something failed. This wasn't even the first time someone came to him with a kid, but any previous claims had turned out to be false.

This time the DNA agreed with the mother.

"What do you need?"

She gave him a calm look. "For your daughter to know you."

Fuck. It was worse than he'd thought.

*

Karen was a pretty bright child, or so Tony was told.

He didn't know much about children, really, and had very little in the way of personal experience with this one, either. He supported her mother, of course, and was vaguely aware of receiving occasional updates about the child's development, but that was all.

It was for the better, Tony reminded himself as Jarvis told him with some reproach that another birthday had passed. He would have been a failure of a father anyway. Karen and her mom would be much happier without him.

He didn't want to hear otherwise.

*

Some part of Tony died in Afghanistan.

Even after he made his way home alive, his memories kept haunting him. More than anything, he kept thinking of Yinsen, and everything that had been said in that dark, dirty cave. All those painful words about family, and what he was leaving behind, and what he had to lose.

It wasn't until the whole mess with Obadiah was over that Tony made up his mind. He had enough regrets as it was; there was no need to add to them. He was still alive.

Karen really had grown up an awful lot.

*

June Parker died two weeks after Karen turned six.

Tony left a business meeting to take the call, and the city before an hour had passed. Pepper wasn't too pleased with him, but he was sure she'd forgive him once he explained. This was way more important than dealing with some idiots who saw him as a tech-dispensing machine of some sort.

Karen was beside herself, the poor thing, running over to cling to Tony's legs. A woman followed her, introducing herself as Karen's aunt May. She had been babysitting at the time of the crash.

Tony owed her everything.

*

May was far more patient than Tony deserved, taking Karen without questions.

It was for the best, really. Karen needed someone who could take care of him when Tony inevitably failed her again. Perhaps this wasn't due to anything he was doing, but he was going to fail her anyway, and he wasn't going to let himself off the hook just because he was dying. His will, however splendid, couldn't make up for abandoning her.

Except he survived, he actually didn't die against all odds, and now he had a chance to make it up to her all over again.

*

When Karen was eight years old, Tony lost his daughter.

This wasn't as great of a tragedy as one might have expected. After all, his kid was still there, still being smart and kind of awkward and reminding Tony of himself in the most painful ways. However, now said kid wanted to be called Peter, and for all his failures Tony could do that much at least.

He did all he could to help Peter, of course. Sometimes, that was finding a school that would accommodate him, other times it was just calling him young man.

Anything for his son.

*

All Tony could think about while chasing a nuke was how happy he was that Peter was staying with May.

Not that he'd be safe anyway, not until the invasion was over with, but at least he wasn't staying at the tower. It was a small comfort, but it was something.

He probably wasn't going to make it back to pick up Peter. He wasn't going to make that call to Pepper, wasn't going to plan a nice family dinner to make up for being an asshole once again.

As long as they survived, it would be worth his sacrifice.

*

Harley reminded Tony of Peter.

To be fair, this could have been simply because he had a very limited understanding of young boys so obviously his own kid would have been the first to come to mind. Still, there were definitely similarities. They both liked tinkering with tech, they both were far too smart for their own good, and they were completely unafraid of messing with Tony. It was a bit of familiarity in the middle of all this mess, and Tony clung to it with all his might.

He needed the reminder of why he had to get home.

*

Tony might have paid more attention to the downfall of SHIELD if he hadn't been kind of busy with his son getting bitten by a weird spider.

To begin with, Peter tried to hide the whole thing, because he was Tony's son through and through. Too bad for him that JARVIS was following his vitals and alerted Tony when they deviated too much.

The good news was, Peter wasn't going to die of a painful case of poisoning. The bad news was, now his boy really, really wanted to be a hero.

How could you ground someone with superhuman strength?

*

Perhaps it was paranoid of Tony to still keep Peter under the wraps from most of the Avengers, but it was clearly the best choice, given that it meant Peter was out of the Tower with Pepper when Ultron decided to go haywire.

This wasn't going to end well. Either Tony ended up dead and his creation took over the world, or both Peter and Pepper would be making fun of his inability to keep his tech under control.

Once this was all over with, he was going to take them all on a family holiday somewhere nice and non-apocalyptic.

*

Tony never wanted Peter to get involved in heroics.

Perhaps it was the wrong way to think about it, especially given the kind of example he was setting, but Tony wanted to keep his boy safe. It was bad enough Tony was making those around him worry about his attempts to make up for his past failings, he didn't want Peter to keep risking himself as well.

Why, then, was he bringing Peter into this fight now?

At least the kid was smarter than his dad, kept calling him Mr. Stark and not slipping up. Perhaps he would do better.

*

Honestly, Tony wasn't sure how he had managed to keep everything under wraps for so long.

It had been easy enough when he had kept his distance, only sending along money and the occasional message. However, ever since June's death, Peter had spent most of his life in one of Tony's places. Somehow they had still managed to keep him out of the tabloids, even hidden him from most of the Avengers. It was something of a miracle, really.

The last thing Tony expected was for Cap to find his kid eating popcorn while invading the Tower way past midnight.


End file.
